


Nine Hours

by ArtemiStorm



Series: The Many Nights of Nightwing [1]
Category: Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Gotham City - Freeform, Hurt Dick Grayson, No proofreading we die like mne, One Shot, Trapped, Whumptober 2020, collapsed building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:55:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26811733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemiStorm/pseuds/ArtemiStorm
Summary: Never so completely had Murphy's Law been manifested in Gotham City. Everthing that could have gone wrong, did. When Nightwing awakens, there are only two Batfam members left standing.Figuratively. That is.One is paralyzed in a wheelchair and the other is lying pinned in a collapsed building.
Relationships: Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson
Series: The Many Nights of Nightwing [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955491
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	Nine Hours

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this quite a while ago but never posted it. Today I looked up the whumptober prompts for this year and noticed that today's (Oct 4) prompt is "Running out of time, caged, buried alive, collapsed building," coincidentally matches this old story of mine. So voila. I present to you Nightwing's pain.

Nightwing slowly awoke. His mind was foggy. His mouth and sinuses felt as parched as Vegas in July. A steady headache pulsed in his temples with each heartbeat. Where was he? What had happened? Why did he feel like total trash?

He opened his eyes, but it wasn’t much use. Wherever he was, it was dark and suspiciously quiet. So quiet he could hear his own blood rushing through his head. 

Groggily, he moved his arms and legs. They felt weak, leaden, and the ached like crazy. Something pressed on his torso heavily, restricting his breathing to shallow breaths. 

The room was dimly lit by the red glow of the fire alarm. He struggled to make sense of what he was seeing. Above and to the left of him was only darkness. To the right, was a wall, a patch of darkness, and jumbles of… something. His mind couldn’t comprehend what could possibly be shaped like a haphazard pile of…

Oh. 

It was debris. 

Like a frozen waterfall, rubble cascaded down from an upper story onto the floor and seemed to flow out of a gaping hole in the wall into an endless void. What had happened? 

“Batman?” He called frailly over the comms. There was no response.

“Penny One?” Again, silence. 

“Nightwing to anyone…?” Not even static. Just silence. Maybe his comms were down. Or he was out of range. Or everyone else was out of range. 

Or everyone else was dead. 

He shook his head. No! Don’t think like that.

Whatever happened, it looked like he was on his own. 

He tried to lift what felt like a heavy wooden beam off of his body, but his arms shook with effort.

“Nightwing?” A muffled female voice uttered over the comms.

“Rgh!” He grunted and let go. The beam, which had risen slightly bowed back down on him. He panted trying to get enough air.

“Nightwing!”

“Babs?”

“It’s Oracle, right now, honey. Are you alright?”

“Been better,” he mumbled, “but I’ll live.” 

“Where have you been? I’ve been calling and calling…”

“I’m not sure... tell me… what happened?”

“Are you sure you’re okay? You sound out of breath.”

“I’m pinned… under a beam… hard to breathe.”

“Oh! Okay, don’t try to talk. Minimize your movements to conserve oxygen.”

“What… happened?” Nightwing inhaled as deeply as he could and summoned up his strength for another push.

“Um… everything.” Oracle paused. “Everything that wasn’t supposed to happen did. Everyone’s missions failed. The [important person] has been assassinated. Power’s been cut off throughout the city. The [bad guys] got the [McGuffin]. All the bombs in the [something] buildings exploded. Including the one you were in. When you didn’t answer… I thought for sure… ” Oracle’s voice cracked. Nightwing dropped the beam again. It bounced downward heavily on his pelvis and ribcage. The force of it pushed all the air out of his lungs and he felt a sharp crack in his bottom right rib.

“Nightwing!” Oracle said, frantically, but he didn’t respond. “Nightwing! What happened? Say something! Make a noise!” An agonizing minute passed where all she could hear was faint gasping. Then his voice come over.

“I could use… some help,” he said barely above a whisper. She could hear the pain in his voice. Oracle breathed a sigh of relief. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she bubbled. “No one can come. I can’t… no one else has been on comms…”

“How long?”

“Nine hours.” She heard him inhale sharply. “It’s been nine hours of radio silence since… everything… since… Batman went missing. Hood hasn’t surfaced. Drake’s comms malfunctioned early in the night. Robin was attacked and… and… you… the building exploded.”

Building exploded? Oh yeah. He’d gotten about eleven seconds of warning that there were bombs in the building. He had raced to jump out the window, but didn’t quite make it. If that was nine hours ago…? Damn. That was a long time to be unconscious. A long time for Babs to think he was dead. And a shockingly long for the entire Batfam and Allies to be radio silent. What in the world had happened to all of them?

“Can you…”

“No. My legs.” She hesitated. “My spinal implant went offline, same as almost all the other electronics did too.”

“Oh… you can’t…”

“Yeah. I’m paralyzed again.” They both paused, then Oracle continued. “Sorry. Batgirl can’t come to the rescue, but Oracle can support you from afar.”

“Supes?”

“He’s in space,” she cut him off. “So is the rest of the Justice League.”

“Titans?”

“Russia. Last I heard.”

“Dang.”

“I’m so sorry, Nightwing. Whatever trouble you’re in, you have to get out of on your own.”

“I can’t lift… too heavy! Can’t breath…”

“Calm down. Let’s think about this for a second. Maybe if you can’t lift it off you, can you shimmy out from under it?”

“I’ll try.” Nightwing panted, gathered his strength. With a searing hot pain in his chest, he forcefully inhaled as he pushed upward on the beam. It raised just enough for him to push back with his legs. He scooted backward maybe an inch before the beam swayed downward again re-pinning him. It didn’t seem any better. He struggled to breath ragged painful breaths.

“Nightwing?” Oracle asked.

Again, he inhaled, pushed upward on the beam, and scooted backward another inch. 

“You okay?”

“Gah!” He groaned and squeezed his eyes shut as the pain flared.

“You can do this, Nightwing. I believe in you! Just hang in there and keep going!”

He took longer to recover this time, counting his breaths to focus and calm himself. The pain subsided enough that he could try again. For the third time he lifted the beam and scooted, this time, partially out from under it. The beam fell against his shoulder nearly crushing it.

“Ack! Oh god, my shoulder!” He cried. He gulped a full breath of air and pushed up against the beam with everything he had and scooted his shoulder out from under it. White fire seemed to envelope his senses. His mind went fuzzy and everything faded.

“..wing!” Something echoed quietly in his ear. “Nightwing!” Oracle called. Nightwing opened his eyes again.

“I’m here,” he said.

“I lost you there for a minute. Are you alright?”

“Better. I can breathe freely now.”

“Are you still stuck under the beam?”

“I… I think so. I can’t… feel my leg…”

“You’re almost there. Just give me another push. Can you do that?”

“Yeah. Okay. Come on, Dick you can do this,” Nightwing psyched himself up. He pushed against the beam with his right leg moving it slightly, just enough for him to pull… yes! His left leg was free! He relaxed and panted staring at the red ceiling.

“Nightwing…”

“I’m free,” he said.

“Oh thank God!” She said. “Damage report?” Nightwing took physical inventory.

“Cracked ribs, probably two. Shoulder’s bruised, but I don’t think its broken. My leg’s getting circulation back so that’s alright.” He gasped suddenly and got quiet.

“What else?”

“Shrapnel.”

“How bad?”

“Nothing too terrible. A couple small pieces in my leg, side, and shoulder, all on the left side. I’m not really bleeding. Looks like the beam helped me out in that respect.”

“Well don’t do anything crazy to open your wounds back up.”

“You don’t have to worry about that, I’m not really up for crazy right now.”

“Listen Nightwing, you need to get out of there. If you’re still in the [name] building, it’s unstable. I need you to find your way out and head to Drake’s Nest, alright? That’s where I’ll be.” 

“Copy that, ma’am. On my way.”

“Be careful, Nightwing. I already thought I lost you once tonight…”

“Don’t worry. It’s okay. I’ll stay on comms. See you soon, milady.”

“See you soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy World Animal Day everyone! Hug your favorite animal to celebrate.


End file.
